Funding to expand the Filo Project day care service in North Devon

The Filo Project day care service is described as 'a day with friends'.

A project that offers elderly people day care has received £50,000 in funding to widen its operations in North Devon.

The Filo Project provides small day care groups at private homes and likens its successful model to 'a day with friends'.

It already has strong roots in Bideford, but the funding from the Transform Ageing programme means the Devon-wide programme can now look at 'scaling up' across other parts of North Devon including Barnstaple and Holsworthy.

Transform Ageing, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and delivered by UnLtd, has provided funding to 10 social ventures in Devon that aim to provide solutions to many of the issues faced by people in later life in the region.

The Filo Project currently runs 60 groups a week, 16 of them in Bideford and aims to cater for older people who are socially isolated, many of them living with early to moderate dementia.

After the relevant training and checks, small groups of people are hosted at residents' private homes for socialising, lunch and whatever activities they wish to do.

Director Libby Price said the funding was intended to help them scale up the project to other areas.

She said: "One of the main focuses for us is to create better support for the whole of North Devon, which is incredibly busy at the moment.

"The project is very much about the people who come for their days with us. We want it to be a very personalised service , but as a by-product of that we are providing replacement (respite) care for carers as well.

"The concept of what we do is 'a day out with friends' and a normalised calm environment which is very beneficial.

"And we are keeping people at home for longer, which is where they want to be."

Libby said the project is also currently working with the NHS in Torbay to look at the long-term effect of its model of care on peoples' health and wellbeing.

The Filo Project was founded by Libby and Dr Liz Dennis, who said they felt the bar for day care had to be raised, because what was on offer should not be just 'good enough'.

About North Devon Gazette

First published in 1856 as the Bideford Gazette, the North Devon Gazette is the free newspaper and website for the region, covering a vast area from Hartland in the west to Lynton in the east and to South Molton and Holsworthy in the south.